asped
the inspector's arm. He drew him to one side.

"How were you so sure?" he asked under his breath. "Because Nora gave
you this number?"

The inspector shook his head. His great shoulders trembled.

"No. She had no number to give me. But this afternoon I saw her enter
this house. I watched the door close behind her, and, Garth--she has
never come out."

* * * * * *

Garth with frantic haste explored the place himself from roof to cellar.
There was no question. It had remained uninhabited for many months,
perhaps years. Yet Nora had told her father that, while its location had
been kept from her, she had arranged a certain entry to the evil house
that afternoon. She had told him to follow her. He had seen the door
close behind her.

Garth scarcely dared open his mind to full comprehension. If Nora had
been directed to this deserted building and admitted, it was clear that
her connection with the police had been discovered. It was logically
certain that she had walked into an elaborately plotted ambush.

He hurried to the sidewalk where he found the inspector braced heavily
against the rail.

"What can I do, Garth?" the big man asked hoarsely.

What to do, indeed! Garth thrust his hands in his pockets. He stared
helplessly up the street. His glance rested on the corner house of the
next block where last night the man in the fur coat had left the first
coin. Suddenly his breath sharpened. His mind, planning blindly, paused,
drew back, dared again to face the single chance that had risen from the
shadows of the corner house.

He wet his lips. He touched the inspector's shoulder. He understood that
on a bare possibility he would place his entire career in the scales.
Since, however, it balanced Nora's rescue from such unspeakable hands,
he did not hesitate.

"Chief," he whispered, "take your men back to the station house and keep
them ready. I'll telephone you there in a few minutes, fifteen or twenty
at the outside."

"What are you going to do, Garth?"

"Take one chance to get Nora back," he answered quickly, "probably say
good-bye to New York. It was something I thought of last night. It
seemed common sense to forget it this morning. Now I'm going to make
sure. No time to talk."

CHAPTER XII

THE HIDDEN DOOR

He ran swiftly west, past the house on the corner, past the areaway
where he had secreted himself last night, into Park Avenue, always on
the course ta